2007 Atlanta Half Marathon
This is a special race to me as it is the first race I ran at any distance over 5K. It is somewhat of a tradition to run every year. I missed one year due to down time from injury and lack of training- but other than I have run it every year since 2001. I have had people ask why I get up so early on Thanskgiving to go run- and I just think of all of the memories from the races and tell them it is just a tradition I do.

Over the last 6 years my goals in this race have changed somewhat but I always seem to have a great time running this race and always come away smiling and this year was no different.

I had no plans of meeting any of friends at the race this year. My plan was to just get there- take in the Thanksgiving sites and sounds have a fun time.

Atlanta has been without rain for quite some time and is in a severe drought so I didn't mind the race morning rain forecast on Thanksgiving morning. Teh race starter was counting down from 10 to yell race start and I jokingly said to the couple next to me that when he got to zero it was going to start raining. Well- sure enought it did. We just looked at each other and laughed.

As always, no one lines up correctly for this race even though they have signs (min per mile pace) to help people judge where they should line up.

After slowly working through the some of the crowd in the first couple of miles it loosened a little but was still a little crowded. Somewhere near the end of mile 3 (I think) I heard someone yell my name and turned around to see Michele. She had just run a marathon the Saturday before and was now running a half marathon 5 days later pacing a friend of hers. Incredible!! We ran together for a mile or so and then parted ways. Although I really didn't have specific time goals for this race I did have certain areas of teh course I wanted to push it on to see how my conditioning was and start working on my program going in to next year.

My splits are usually alot closer than they were this year but with my plan I just mentioned, there were a couple of areas when I just ran, others where I pushed it a little.

Mile Split
1 9.01
2 8.44
3 8.32
4 8.46
5 8.27
6 8.08
7 7.59
8 8.52
9 8.34
10 8.26
11 8.29
12 8.18
13 7.55
.1 1.36 (6.55 pace)
Note: They put the 13 mile marker with the 26 mile marker for the marathoners so the 13 mile marker was actually at 12.9 and the end of the race was .2 miles.

Total Time- 1:51:53
Avg- 8.33

I was running towards the finish I heard someone yell encouragement for me but didn't know who it was. Turned out it was a buddy from work that also ran the race. Ran in to him at the drink area after the race and chatted for a few minutes. I felt great after the race and actually had thoughts of running a couple of more miles but decided against it after standing in the rain for a while and stiffening a little.

This was a typical Thanksgiving day half marathon- so many friends and families chatting as they run. The sparse crowd that is out watching for their family members as they come by. The great volunteers that are out there early in the morning yelling Happy Thanksgiving to all of the runners. But as I made my way back along the last 1.5 miles of the course I saw so may great sites. You never know the stories behind these runners. There was the mom running and the Dad and daughter on the side of the road waiting for her and she approached the little child cheering so loudly and the mom running over to give kisses. Then there were the two ladies that were approaching the top of the last hill where you can see the long stretch to the finish line and one friend breaking out in tears and the other hugging her and telling her she made it. Then there is the 3.5 year old asking his daddy did he race and did he get a medal and the daddy saying yes he did. And then the son asking his daddy can he see it and where it. The daddy said yes and slid teh medal over his sons head and the son looking so excited and exclaiming "THAT IS SO COOL DAD!!!!!" Yes, Glenn.... that is so cool isn't it.
Yes- it was a good Thanksgiving!!